172 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (SAEATOGA SPRINGS, TOWEK.) 



dian department), a Catholic college and or- 

 phans' school, a Presbyterian academy, the 

 Ramona School for Indian girls, costing $65,- 

 000, and a Catholic school for Indian boys. A 

 daily newspaper is published, and there are 

 two national banks, capital of each, $150,000. 

 The Capitol, erected at a cost of $200,000, 

 and Territorial Penitentiary, $150,000, are fine 

 buildings. Adobe, or sun-dried earth, un- 

 burned, with or without straw, is the leading 

 material for residences. Santa Fe has a plan- 

 ing-mill, a cracker- factory, and a brewery. 

 Pottery is manufactured by the Indians. 



Saratoga Springs, a watering-place of New 

 York, 36 miles north of Albany, in Saratoga 

 County, near the center of the State. The 

 resident population is estimated at 12,000. 

 There are upward of 40 mineral springs, with 

 various medicinal properties. The principal 

 are the Vichy, discovered in 1872, by drilling 

 180 feet. Water is forced to the surface by 

 natural pressure of carbonic-acid gas. It is 

 alkaline, rather than salt. There are a mag- 

 netic spring and baths near old High Rock. 

 The Geyser, spouting 25 feet, was discovered 

 in 1870. Others are the Congress and Colum- 

 bia, in Congress Spring Park ; the Hathorn, 

 Empire, High Rock, Excelsior, Star, Champion, 

 Hamilton, Washington, White Sulphur, etc. 

 The tract was owned by Iroquois Indians of 

 the Mohawk tribe, and was a favorite hunt- 

 ing-ground. The value of the springs was 

 known to the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, 

 Senecas, and Cayugas, who resorted to them. 

 The Saratoga patent was sold to citizens of 

 Albany in 1684. High Rock Spring was first 

 visited by white men in 1767, when a wounded 

 English baronet was restored to health. A 

 settlement was made here in 1773. The pres- 

 ent town was founded in 1819, and made a 

 post-office in 1826. There are six mammoth 

 hotels and numerous others, affording accom- 

 modations for from 15,000 to 20,000 visitors. 

 The season is from July 10 to September 1. 

 The architecture is varied, and the gardens and 

 grounds extensive and beautiful. The attrac- 

 tions beside the springs are parks, drives, the 

 lake, the race-course, and club-house. The 

 Association for Racing was organized in 1864, 

 and a charter was obtained in 1865. The 

 town has one national bank, with a capital of 

 $125,000 and equal surplus. The town-hall 

 was erected at a cost of $130,000. The New 

 York Central and the Delaware, Lackawanna, 

 and Western are the principal railroads. 



Tower, a town in northern Minnesota, in- 

 corporated in 1884, is situated in a region of 

 valuable timber-land on the south shore of 

 Lake Vermilion ; population 5,000. It is one 

 and one half mile from Tower mines, for 

 which its provision-stores furnish supplies, no 

 general store being located in the mining dis- 

 trict, which has a population of over 1,000 

 men, the majority of them householders. It 

 has five churches, two graded schools, the First 

 National Bank of Tower, capital $50,000, a 



cold-storage warehouse capable of keeping two 

 car-loads at the freezing-point, a brick-yard 

 which turns out 20,000 bricks a day, a lumber 

 company, the output of whose mills in 1888 

 was 10,000,000 logs, large shipments being 

 made to Duluth, Two Harbors, and Ely, and 

 ninety cars being used for the business in one 

 month. There are two saw-mills with a ca- 

 pacity of about 80,000 feet of lumber daily, 

 and a prominent social organization called the 

 Skandinavian Society. Fine brick-clay is found 

 in the vicinity, and east of the town is Burnt- 

 side Lake, a popular camping-ground. The 

 Minnesota Iron Company, Charlemagne Tower, 

 of Philadelphia, president, employs 1,400 men, 

 and holds 8,000 acres of land, covering the 

 larger portion of the iron deposits in that dis- 

 trict, extending to the shores of Lake Vermil- 

 ion, and including the present site of Tower 

 city and beyond its limits eastward for a dis- 

 tance of 75 miles. The ore is found in two 

 lenses averaging 60 feet wide at an altitude of 

 1,000 feet above Lake Superior, and 1,600 feet 

 above the ocean - level. The first ore was 

 taken out in 1884, immediately subsequent to 

 the completion of the railroad from Tower to 

 Two Harbors in the spring of that year. The 

 first shipments of ore, amounting to 64,000 

 tons, were made by railroad July 3, 1884. In 

 1886 the output reached 304,000 tons, and 

 would make over 150,000 tons of rails, the 

 Minnesota Iron Company contributing one 

 tenth of the entire iron product of the Lake 

 Superior region. The ore is principally cele- 

 brated for the small proportion of phosphorus 

 contained in it, on account of which it is sought 

 by manufacturers of Bessemer steel, who pro- 

 nounce it the purest magnetic ore known. It 

 assays as high as 68 per cent, of metallic iron 

 and '055 of phosphorus. The veins of ore 

 average from 16 to 160 feet in width, and the 

 ore belt is from 6 to 10 miles wide. This min- 

 ing region is regarded as virtually one great 

 deposit of iron ore extending through the 

 range of hills overlooking Lake Vermilion. 

 In 1887 the output was over 450,000 tons. 

 There are nine pits each furnished with the 

 latest and most approved appliances for exca- 

 vating, hoisting, and transferring to the ore cars. 

 The pits bear the names of the promoters of 

 the enterprise. The Stuntz pit is from 20 to 

 60 feet by 400 feet. At a depth of 60 feet the 

 ore was brought through a tunnel to be hoist- 

 ed to the railroad cars. The Stone pit, one 

 eighth of a mile west of the Stuntz, is worked 

 in three slopes, the width of the deposit vary- 

 ing from 25 to 125 feet, the deepest point be- 

 low the surface being 100 feet. The mine cars 

 are hoisted directly from this pit by powerful 

 drums. The Ely pit, directly west of tho 

 Stone and adjoining it, when opened for a dis- 

 tance of 200 feet, snowed a vein of good ore 

 at the second level 129 feet wide. It is now 

 400 feet long, 50 feet deep, and from 20 to 120 

 feet in width. In the vicinity are two air- 

 compressors for working powder-drills, two 



